


Husk of a Boy

by krowbonez



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan, The Trials of Apollo - Rick Riordan
Genre: Angst, Character Death, Corn - Freeform, Crack, Crack Treated Seriously, Hurt No Comfort, M/M, Sick Character, Transformation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-21
Updated: 2020-12-21
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:08:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,113
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28205106
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/krowbonez/pseuds/krowbonez
Summary: “Nico, you can’t die.”The words were a plea, and Will Solace said them as he gripped his boyfriend's hand. He interlaced their fingers, trying to ignore the cold, waxy texture of Nico’s skin. Nico, who had been sick for a month at this point, offered a weak smile.ORNico has a lot of secrets and they’re finally catching up with him
Relationships: Nico di Angelo/Will Solace
Comments: 7
Kudos: 22





	Husk of a Boy

“Nico, you can’t die.”

The words were a plea, and Will Solace said them as he gripped his boyfriend's hand. He interlaced their fingers, trying to ignore the cold, waxy texture of Nico’s skin. Nico, who had been sick for a month at this point, offered a weak smile. 

Will sighed, his heart like fragile glass. He didn’t want to see his boyfriend like this — withering away from something not even a god of medicine could identify.

Yeah, that’s right. Apollo had stopped by. After all his trials as a mortal it wasn’t too uncommon for him to show up at Camp Half Blood. He’d appeared in the form of Lester Papadopoulos, as usual, and Will had called him to the infirmary instantly.

“Do you know what he has?” Will had asked, he kept himself composed. It didn’t matter if Nico’s condition wasn’t responding to Will’s own healing powers (or that they were actually making Nico worse) because Apollo was a god. He would have the power to help, or at least know what was going on, right?

Wrong. Apollo didn’t know shit. He was apologetic, and he gave his son a hug before he left, but there really was nothing he could do.

Will was left sitting on Nico’s infirmary bed. He ran his hands through his boyfriend's hair. It didn’t feel much like hair anymore though - one of the many symptoms of Nico's condition. His hair had turned stringy and lighter in colour like a bowl of half-cooked pasta. At first Will teased him and said it was because he was italian, but with the shallowness of Nico’s breathing it didn’t seem funny anymore. It just seemed like Nico was dying. 

That’s when Will had interlaced their fingers and spoke.

“Nico, you can’t die.”

“I’m not dying, but time’s almost up,” Nico whispered, “I’m gonna turn back now.”

“What… what do you mean turn back?” Will demanded. Tears pricked at his eyes. None of this made sense.

“There’s a lot I haven’t told you, Will.” Nico reached up and put his free hand on Will’s cheek, letting it rest there. Will noticed Nico was even more yellow now. That had been one of the first symptoms: turning yellow. At first, Will had wondered if Nico had Jaundice, but that wasn’t the case. This was something far worse than Jaundice.

“Then tell me now,” Will said, voice barely more than a whisper. Nico managed a nod. 

“I wasn’t always Nico di Angelo,” Nico confessed, “for a long time I didn’t have a name. I was just what I was. I was a… I can’t… it’s too painful to say.”

“That’s okay. You don’t need to tell me anything that hurts too much.” Will squeezed Nico’s hand, and there was a short silence before Nico continued.

“My mom was infertile,” he said, “but she and Hades desperately wanted children. My dad… he brought up souls from the underworld to create me and Bianca, but to turn us alive again he needed to combine our souls with something alive…I think that living part of me is kicking out my soul now. I’m going to become what I was before.”

What were you before? Will wanted to ask, but he kept his mouth firmly shut. Nico’s skin was changing. It seemed to bubble into firm, gridlike scales across his neck and shoulders. Expect they weren’t scales. They were kernels. 

“I’m sorry,” Nico breathed. Will blinked tears from his eyes. 

“Don’t apologize,” he said. “I love you, signor myth-o-magic. That will never change.”

Nico let out a soft laugh at the nickname. “It got worse ever since Triptolemus… I think what he did… it made what I was stronger… he gave it enough power to kick out my soul.”

“Triptolemus?” Will asked. He’d heard the name before (maybe from one of the Demeter kids?) but he couldn’t place it.

“A farming god,” Nico supplied. “Ran into him on a quest. He turned me back into what I used to be. It only lasted about an hour at most, but I guess it gave it enough will power…”

“Gods.” Will fought to keep himself from fully breaking down, but he was barely having any coherent thoughts. Nico looked awful. His hair had all but fully changed into silks. His body was stiffening, and though he was definitely still alive he was not breathing anymore. Maybe his body didn’t need oxygen at this point in the transformation.

“Can you see it?” Nico blinked up at Will and forced a smile. 

Will looked at Nico’s hand on his cheek. It wasn’t a hand anymore though, and it was slipping off his face.

“Yes, Nico,” Will said “I can see the husk.”

Nico nodded. “I’ve never been Nico though. Inside, I’ve always been corn.”

Will sobbed, because what else was he supposed to do? Tell his boyfriend he loved him? Plead for him to say human? He was returning to his truest state and Will didn’t know what to do.

His boyfriend's body changed. His torso and head became a perfectly shaped sweet corn, his hair became delicate silks, and his arms folded over his body in a protective husk. Then he shrank, his borrowed soul drifting back to the underworld. By the end of it all, Will’s boyfriend was a cob like any other. 

Will cried, he wasn’t sure for how long but eventually Kayla and Austin found him and he explained what was going on. They both hugged him tight and reassured him until eventually Will had enough willpower to stand. 

When Will stepped out of the infirmary he was still trembling, but he clutched the cob of corn to his chest with purpose. His boyfriend was corn now, sure, but corn was still a living thing and Will would give him the best life possible.

He buried him in some empty space near the strawberry fields, and some Demeter kids helped him with his plans. They grew a cornfield to honor Will’s boyfriend. In the fall they would make it into a scary corn maze, because the son of Hades would have loved that.

But for now, Will would sit amongst the corn, his shoulders shaking from crying as he peeled a cob of corn and held the husk to his cheek, so he could recreate the last touch he ever got from his boyfriend.

Will pressed a soft kiss to the kernels, remembering the phase in his boyfriends transformation where nothing was left but his face, tinted yellow and sticking out of an otherwise normal giant cob of corn. 

“I love you,” Will said, and the cornfield heard. After all, it had plenty of ears.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed this... writing.
> 
> Follow me on tiktok @crowswithteeth


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